On Nov. 11 and 12, PV’s drama department took their talents to perform their production “Sweeney Todd” at Iowa’s Thespian Festival at the University of Northern Iowa. PV’s drama department put on one of the best performances of the night, with their performance qualifying them for the International Thespian Festival.

PV will be one of the seven shows to perform in addition to the two mainstage performances put on each night. The festival will take place in Lincoln, Nebraska in the last week of June. The countries represented at the International Thespian Festival will include Canada, China, the United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Ireland, England, and Mexico. In order to get in, the adjudicator of the school’s performance at the state thespian festival needs to say that the school should be able to perform at the international level. Usually, only performing arts schools reach this level, so for PV to be able to perform on the international stage is an amazing accomplishment.

Bailey Connors, the lead in Sweeney Todd, said he was beyond excited to be able to perform at the international level. “This experience has been incredibly humbling and exciting,” Connors said. “It is crazy to think that I’m going to be singing, acting, and slashing throats in front of thousands of thespians from all around the U.S.” Although it’s extremely hard to make it to Internationals, Connors said this was his goal from the beginning. “Going to Internationals was always a goal that I had on my radar ever since the show was announced to be adjudicated. I made sure to do a ton of research on the character to make sure I could get into character as quickly as possible to make that goal more achievable.”

Vincent Gnad, a senior in the production, said this show was successful because of the work put forth into such a difficult show. “I think the show selection and the amount of effort that went in to pull off such a difficult work was what made this production a success.” Connors added, “the dedication to the show is unlike any I have seen in my high school years. Everyone learned their music, lines, and choreography very well and I am immensely proud of this cast and crew.” The send off for the cast and crew of Sweeney Todd will be this Tuesday after third period. Let’s send off the Spartans in a grand way for this incredible accomplishment, and congratulations to the cast and crew of Sweeney Todd.